A Soap Label To Save The World From Future HitlersDecember 1, 2018 11:50 AMSubscribe

Emanuel Bronner didn’t just want to make soap. He wanted to unite the world. "In this light, the bottle’s breathless monologue reads more like a doomful love letter from the past. A warning to humanity rising up from the sorrows of loss at the hands of a despot. Woven between incoherent maxims are the raw wounds of a man incapable of communicating just how horrific his pain was. He discloses his grief in a desperate, almost childlike way—on a soap label. A soap label that has become the iconic face of a $120 million soap company. A soap label the Bronner family will never change."

Did you hear any music that blew your mind? It sounds strangely not about that.
I was perpetually disappointed with the music. Just too glitchy and trancey for me. The best music I heard all weekend was at the Dr. Bronners foam tank. The Dr. Bronners camp wins Burning Man forever.

They have a camp? What?
They have a big tent. And the best music. So you go in and you get naked and you're all dusty and dirty with a bunch of other naked people and there's this big plexi glass chamber that looks like a gas chamber and it had metal grates on the top and on the bottom and a super hot naked dude that looks like Jesus—WWJDM: When Will Jesus Do Me—is herding all the naked people into this gas chamber of joy. Then all these people with hoses start hyping you and getting you to dance and when you dance enough they spray you with magical lavendar Dr. Bronner foam and you just get covered in it, and everyone is like blissfully laughing and screaming. I was scared to open my eyes because I thought it would sting so I was just bouncing off all of these foamy naked people in a big tank. Then I rubbed my eyes and opened them and it didn't sting at all and I have never seen any group of people so happy in my life. It was awesome. It was like when you show a puppy snow, but the puppy is actually a fucking guy with a hemp necklace.

Has been a feature of our bathrooms since our days in 1990s punk houses. Just bought a big bottle at the Wegman's near my work - where they currently have a large display - on Wednesday, in fact.posted by ryanshepard at 12:02 PM on December 1 [8 favorites]

The first time I encountered Bronner's soap, it was in a compilation of The Straight Dope columns, someone had written Uncle Cecil for a label explanation. (Turns out it's this column.)

He’s also not your average soap maker. Whereas Messrs. Procter and Gamble dream (well, dreamt) of enzymes and long-chain fatty acids, Bronner dreams of world peace.

I came home from college with a bottle of Dr. Bronner's and my mother thought I had joined a cult. I remember her talking to me trying to broach the issue. I still use it to this day, like 40 years now. Best soap ever.posted by chocolatetiara at 12:06 PM on December 1 [21 favorites]

In the 80's we bought it at Campmor because you could actually use it to wash while in the woods without poisoning everything.

From the Wikipedia link: 'As the family was Jewish, he pleaded with his parents to emigrate with him for fear of the then-ascendant Nazi Party, but they refused. His last contact with his parents was in the form of a censored postcard saying, "You were right. —Your loving father." His parents died in the Holocaust.'

I really liked hearing about the strained relationships between the generations, and admire that Michael, Dr Bronner’s grandson, has resisted the urge to sell out and expand into a billion different products (ahem, Burt’s Bees and JR Watkins). It’s also very cool that Jim, Emmanuel Bronner’s son, took over the company despite his dad’s shitty parenting, and kept the labels and went on to implement generous employee policies without, as his son puts it “all the religiosity and eccentricity” of Emmanuel.

It infuriates me that Emmanuel was neglecting his kids while preaching about love. How extraordinary that his son went on to be the kind of father he wished he had, all the meanwhile treating his employees well, making the business profitable, and giving back the community. Emmanuel sounds like an asshole (though not unsympathetic, what with fleeing nazis and likely mental illness) but his son and grandson actually have carried his legacy far beyond what he deserved.

And also, I am so happy with their rose castile soap, I recently discovered it (was always loyal to the peppermint) and it’s so lovely. Regardless of scent it really is the best soap for lathering well and rinsing clean and I love that it was fair trade before that was cool. But the suggestions to shampoo, brush teeth, or wash dishes with it? That’s the craziest part of the label.posted by the thorn bushes have roses at 12:46 PM on December 1 [22 favorites]

Just don't ever make the mistake of putting it in a plunger-type soap dispenser. It coagulates, and blocks the opening which causes users to push hard and jets of soap to shoot onto the user's clothing, the walls, and across the room.posted by bz at 12:46 PM on December 1 [27 favorites]

But the suggestions to shampoo, brush teeth, or wash dishes with it? That’s the craziest part of the label.

I tried brushing my teeth with it once and it's such a super weird sensation to know in your bones that this thing is about to taste like gross soap and then somehow it just tastes like peppermint, like it's somehow wrong that it isn't revolting.posted by jason_steakums at 12:54 PM on December 1 [38 favorites]

It infuriates me that Emmanuel was neglecting his kids while preaching about love.

It is infuriating, moreso for the children of parents who have been the victims of terrible trauma, which becomes intergenerational trauma. Then as we grow up, we begin to realize that it isn't their fault, and that there's really no one to blame. Then we find ourselves defending them and their failures from well-meaning outsiders.posted by klanawa at 12:56 PM on December 1 [53 favorites]

While my personal soap dreams do still center around enzymes and long-chain fatty acids, and micelle concentration points of interfacial surfactants, I did understand why my hippy friends in LA permitted only Dr. Bronner's to enter their home, because with Dr. Bronner's the grey water shower runoff can be recycled to water their vegetable garden.posted by StickyCarpet at 1:13 PM on December 1 [10 favorites]

I've always sort of regarded it as the Funny Crackpot Soap. I had no idea.

If you get a chance check out the documentary about him and his family: Dr. Bronner's Magic Soapbox. His story is a very compelling one and the documentary features a lot of archival footage of Bronner speaking in his own words.posted by Ashwagandha at 1:42 PM on December 1 [7 favorites]

Speaking as someone with a constant access to discounted Bronner's soaps, you almost need to wet yourself off, scrub yourself down with the soap, and then wash yourself off. I think I have a year's worth of the stuff (San Diego outlet stores have then for the cheap), but having to wash and then scrub the soap, and then rinse it would be necessary.

Politics aside, I learned about their peppermint soap from Metafilter, and it helped me feel cool in the summer months, so there's that.posted by zabuni at 1:50 PM on December 1 [1 favorite]

I always make sure I have a bottle of the peppermint on hand during summer, because there is so much menthol in it that it has a cooling effect on your skin - which is ABSOLUTE HEAVEN ON TOAST in a cool shower on a hot New York City night.posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:50 PM on December 1 [15 favorites]

Dr. Bronner's is how I learned about colloidal mixtures in the woods when I was 8. If it gets cold enough it turns solid-ish and grainy, my dad explained the chemistry while reheating it floating in a pan of water warming over the cooker.posted by heyforfour at 1:55 PM on December 1 [15 favorites]

You used to be a able to send away for pamphlets, which I did, including the specified $3. A month later I got back the “Moral ABC” pamphlet with my $3 back, and a nice note indicating they no longer believed in charging for wisdom. Plus my $3 in ones had been neatly ironed.posted by blnkfrnk at 1:59 PM on December 1 [73 favorites]

Just don't ever make the mistake of putting it in a plunger-type soap dispenser. It coagulates, and blocks the opening which causes users to push hard and jets of soap to shoot onto the user's clothing, the walls, and across the room.

Dilute! Dilute! OK! (seriously, equal parts Dr. Bronner's and water has worked for me in multiple plunger dispensers without clogging them mostly for years, and it still cleans just fine)posted by Greg_Ace at 2:11 PM on December 1 [19 favorites]

It does work as shampoo (dilute!) if I rinse with diluted lemon juice or vinegar, but lemon smells better. They go in 16 oz. ketchup squeeze bottles. I always felt very oppressed when confronting a 20 foot wall of shampoos. I'm so glad to have that sorted.posted by Botanizer at 2:13 PM on December 1 [8 favorites]

I like to drink the stuff. Is this OK?
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 1:49 PM on December 1 [1 favorite +] [!]

This is a 2014 version of the 2013 profile of David Bronner I linked under the fold in the OP, if anyone hasn't read it yet. It's mostly the same article except the first few paragraphs which note that Washington Initiative 522 was rejected.

> It’s also very cool that Jim, Emmanuel Bronner’s son, took over the company despite his dad’s shitty parenting, and kept the labels and went on to implement generous employee policies without, as his son puts it “all the religiosity and eccentricity” of Emmanuel.

Jim's son David takes the eccentricity more to heart. From the above article:

David Bronner, Jim’s son, wasn’t sure he wanted to become the next standard-bearer for a soap-making dynasty. After graduating from Harvard in 1995 with a biology degree, he immersed himself in Amsterdam’s drug culture. “I just had my life explode on many levels of identity,” he recalls of a late-night ecstasy and acid trip at a gay trance club. These experiences, as well as the writings of authors such as Noam Chomsky and Paul Hawken, eventually opened his eyes to the value of his grandfather’s All-One philosophy and the power of the soap company as a vehicle for change. In 1997, he let his dad know that he was ready to work for the family business, but only “on activist terms.”

A year later, Jim Bronner died of lung cancer and David, just 25, took over as CEO. He decided early on that he’d rather feel good about his job than worry about making a ton of money. In 1999, he capped the company’s top salary at five times that of the lowest-paid warehouse worker—Bronner now makes about $200,000 a year. He has hired a lot of people he met at Burning Man, including Tim Clark (official title: Foam Maestro), a muscular guy whose job mostly consists of driving a psychedelic, soapsuds-spewing fire truck to music festivals. That’s about as close as the company gets to actual marketing. “We’re basically like a nonprofit,” Bronner explained as we grabbed coffee in the office of his mom, Trudy, the firm’s chief financial officer. “But we aren’t,” countered Trudy, who could easily pass for a church lady with her silver cross centered on a prim maroon turtleneck sweater. “We’re a for-profit business. And we make good money and pay our employees really well.”

Still, the minuscule ad budget and cap on executive pay leave the company with plenty of cash to improve its products and fund social campaigns—goals that, as luck or savvy would have it, often go hand in hand.

"...he capped the company’s top salary at five times that of the lowest-paid warehouse worker—Bronner now makes about $200,000 a year..."

So, the lowest paid warehouse worker makes $40,000/year (~20$/hr). I had this in my house as a kid, and think I'll bring it back into my house as an adult.posted by el io at 2:55 PM on December 1 [54 favorites]

The operative parameter at play in dilution is the CMC, or Critical Micelle Concentration. Above a certain concentration, the bi-polar molecules self-assemble into little balls (micelles, or glue-bundles in Chinese), and that makes the material more viscous, as it comes in the bottle. Diluted above a certain point, those molecules break up into freely hanging about in the carrier solution, and that's when they become directly ready to work as soap.posted by StickyCarpet at 2:59 PM on December 1 [12 favorites]

> reading that caused my entire body to become encased in a viscous sheath of candidiasis and i am upset

I'm sorry for causing you to become upset. On the off chance that looking at fun dog pictures would make you feel better, here's Blondtron's dog's instagram account.posted by homunculus at 3:32 PM on December 1 [7 favorites]

I'm still kind of fond of Sal Suds for general home cleaning, and keep a large bottle of Bronners around for making up my all purpose surface spray. A holdover from my hippy soaping days, cuz bar soap was always easy to make (read: the ingredients weren't hard to find), but liquid soap was a whole 'nother beast.posted by offalark at 3:46 PM on December 1

Actually they've changed it quite a bit since the 80s. I'm pretty sure there's no longer a birth control recipe.

mmoncur, I thought I remembered something about that! Do you happen to have any links to images of the labels with the birth control? There is someone I've been wanting to send a picture of one of those old label to.posted by yohko at 4:14 PM on December 1 [3 favorites]

A friend of mine did an impromptu reading from a tree in Pease Park in Austin I think it was last summer. Several dozen showed with their own bottles to read along. Some fraternity kickball game was going on across the way with a very yelly "alpha" senior bro. Some of these kickballers would stop by, exchange looks of non flattering wonderment I've come to recognize when certain UT students encounter "Austin weirdos", and return to the game.

Except for one.

He took a seat about halfway through the reading. With every recitation of "all one" the crowd called back "ALL ONE!" And with every subsequent exchange our single fraternity bretheren seemed more at ease. By the end he was leaned back against the hill, in complete tranquility. He barely acknowledged alpha bro when he came over (shirtless) and demanded he return to the very important kickball game.

I like to think something changed in our new comrade that day. That he felt a connection he first sought in his fraternity but now knew they could not match. There was no "our frat" and "Austin weirdos" No us and them. He saw for the first time that all of us, every one, are all one.

When I was a teenager I was trying to help my dad wash his dog, and got some Dr. Bronner's in the dog's eye. She suffered a corneal ulcer that took weeks to heal. I still feel bad about it 20 years later.posted by biogeo at 9:29 PM on December 1 [3 favorites]

I love Dr. Bronner's. I first encountered the soap when I got my nose pierced when I was 18 and they recommended cleaning with Dr. Bronner's soap and water only. Now I use the lavender soap for myself and the unscented baby for my son and the unscented magic balm for me and baby and they have the best ever unscented lip balm. I swear I don't know what I would do without this stuff.posted by jj's.mama at 10:48 PM on December 1 [1 favorite]

I was introduced to it when I got my belly button pierced in 1996ish in Santa Cruz, CA. Since then, it is my go to for hand washing, dishwashing and laundry (dilute and in a foaming spray bottle). I have also, in a pinch, used it for shampoo. Basically, I love it and will not be without it. My favorite is the peppermint - or the lavendar.posted by augustinetill at 11:44 PM on December 1

I love Dr. Bronner's, if only because as a kid, it provided material for mindless compulsive reading whilst sitting on the toilet, very much like the back of the cereal box at breakfast.posted by lollymccatburglar at 2:55 AM on December 2 [4 favorites]

I got hosed down by the good Dr Bronner's folks at the Love Burn (smaller regional Burning Man event) in Miami last winter. Dancing around, soapy, naked and clean, with a bunch of people I just met, was one of the highlights of the weekend for sure. I was lingering outside their installation thinking about going in and somebody saw me, "I see you thinking about it, just go in!", so I did, and it was wonderful. I think I'll do it again this January...posted by crazy_yeti at 5:46 AM on December 2 [4 favorites]

Just don't ever make the mistake of putting it in a plunger-type soap dispenser. It coagulates, and blocks the opening...

I dilute it, one part soap to four or five parts water, and I put it in those foaming hand soap pumps. If you use tap water, the soap turns cloudy but it's fine. If you use distilled water, the soap stays clear like the commercial foaming soaps.

In my experience the cheap run-of-the-mill pumps that come with soap in them (from Dial or Method or what have you) last many years, many dozens of fills this way. If you get (what i presume is) glycerin building up on the nozzle, dilute more.

If you buy the larger sizes of Dr. Bronner's, this is quite a but cheaper and handier than the commercial foaming soap refills.posted by Western Infidels at 6:34 AM on December 2 [7 favorites]

Jim Bronner also invented a firefighting foam and a variant that is used to simulate snow.posted by snofoam at 7:04 AM on December 2 [2 favorites]

I had an ex who introduced me to the wonders of Dr Bronners and the bonus nether tingle of peppermint. I’m an Almond guys because I remind me of eating Stella Dora biscottis at my Italian nonna’s place as a child. As a graphic designer myself I wondered what it would like to work for them and their design astheic equivalent of a street preacher at Sproul plaza. And then I meet their designer at Camp Tipsy and chatted with this magical unicorn.

I've had Problem Skins all my life, and Dr. Bronner's Unscented bar soap has been a game-changer. I confess that I never read the label beyond the name and ingredients, though. I assumed that the "All One" in the name was some kind of variation on "All-in-one" or "All-purpose." Of course, I live in a hippie crunchy granola East Coast liberal college town where you can buy it in any drug or grocery store, so it didn't strike me as unusual as it does now.posted by The Underpants Monster at 12:11 PM on December 2 [1 favorite]

I am grateful that their Unscented soap and assorted products are actually unscented! I've been using them for more than a decade now.

I also have asthma that's triggered by scented products, so I've taken to carrying some Dr. Bronner's with me everywhere. I just get one of those small glass perfume rollers, fill it with unscented, undiluted Dr. Bronner's soap instead, and pop it in my pocket. It gets used often enough that the undiluted soap doesn't gunk up the ball joint roller.

In Canada, the bottle is also in french so I now can shout «Tous-Unis ou Rein!» as well.posted by ethansr at 2:03 PM on December 2 [9 favorites]

But the label started changing like the day the dude died!posted by mwhybark at 8:10 PM on December 2

I don't remember why I started using it, but I picked it up in college. I've tried pretty much all the scents (flavors?) and keep coming back to peppermint. The original and the best (although I've liked tea tree at times)! It's available in 32oz bottles at Trader Joe's in Northern California, which makes it easy to get more.

I've had a lot of trouble getting good bottles for dispensing it, especially when traveling. GoToobs are terrible and just waste the soap. I've found that the 2oz Nalgene travel bottles work the best -- they fit caps from the 32oz Dr Bronner's bottles and let you dispense a little bit at a time.posted by Brassica oleracea at 9:11 PM on December 2

This thread was highly effective viral marketing, because I just bought some Dr. Bronner's this afternoon. Now my apartment smells like the dang hippie co op in Ann Arbor. There's no turning back now. Pretty soon I'll be drinking Molson Canadian and listening to some guy talk about Dick's Picks, and the voice will turn out to be me, because I've heard them all, oh God.posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 3:08 AM on December 3 [7 favorites]

I couldn't make sense of this section:

Jim Bronner had emerged from his scarring foster-care experience with herculean resilience. After 14 years in foster care, he entered the United States Navy as a recruit and left with the highest rank an enlisted man could achieve.

I kept looking for more information about the foster care experience that Jim had and couldn't find it. What am I missing?posted by mecran01 at 6:29 AM on December 3 [1 favorite]

I mean, the article doesn't go into any detail on the Bronner kids' experiences in foster care, you didn't miss anything in the article itself. My take on that section is that the writer meant 1) Emanuel Bronner kinda dumped his kids into the foster care system so he could devote all his time to spreading his message, rather than try to make things work as a single father & widower and 2) the US foster care/orphanage system can be highly problematic - I found another article online that stated that Ralph Bronner lived in 15 different orphanages, which is not exactly a stable life for a kid. (I think that article got that info from the documentary linked above.) So not so much a specific reference to horrible things that Jim experienced, more a bit of writerly assumption about how Jim & the rest of the kids could have had a more stable & secure childhood.posted by soundguy99 at 7:08 AM on December 3 [1 favorite]

"... I was trying to help my dad wash his dog, and got some Dr. Bronner's in the dog's eye."

My son discovered our dog loves, loves! being washed with Dr. Bronner's. She is prances around euphorically after the bath, a very happy dog. Haven't gotten any her eye but, so far, she is genuinely ecstatic about the Bronner Bath.posted by bz at 8:06 PM on December 3 [3 favorites]

Every dog I've ever had has pranced around euphorically after a bath, no matter how miserable they were during the actual event. I'm still gonna consider bronnering my dog though!posted by moonmilk at 8:04 AM on December 4 [2 favorites]

Does anyone know how to keep it from freezing/granulating in the cold? Because that's the only thing keeping me from using it while camping. I use a blend of the mint, lavender, and eucalyptus as body wash and it's great.posted by wnissen at 11:58 AM on December 4

"Every dog I've ever had has pranced around euphorically after a bath..."

I should have been clearer that she prances around much more euphorically—at least 2.5X— after a Bronner bath than she does after a non-Bronner bath. It's a very noticeable difference; a real tail-wagger. She's a Boglen Terrier—a "boggle."posted by bz at 3:22 PM on December 4 [1 favorite]

I tried brushing my teeth with it once and it's such a super weird sensation to know in your bones that this thing is about to taste like gross soap and then somehow it just tastes like peppermint, like it's somehow wrong that it isn't revolting.

Last night, as I was preparing to brush my teeth, my eye fell on the bottle of peppermint Dr Bronner's we keep in the shower, and I thought of this comment.

This is, without a doubt, the worst piece of advice I have ever gotten from Metafilter.posted by Adridne at 8:12 AM on December 6 [8 favorites]

My Mom's beagles always moped like fourteen-year-olds after B-A-T-H-S. "I cannot BELIEVE you forced us to be CLEAN for a WHOLE AFTERNOON! Hmmphbaroosnort."posted by The Underpants Monster at 6:03 PM on December 6 [2 favorites]

Last night, as I was preparing to brush my teeth, my eye fell on the bottle of peppermint Dr Bronner's we keep in the shower, and I thought of this comment.

This is, without a doubt, the worst piece of advice I have ever gotten from Metafilter.

I felt a little bad about this (though admittedly also a little proud because that's quite a distinction!) so I just tried it again and, idk, just tastes like unsweetened peppermint to me! But I forgot how weird the foaming sensation is when you brush your teeth with it. Nothing like how toothpaste foams, this is straight up suds, and a lot of them.posted by jason_steakums at 6:53 PM on December 6

> This thread was highly effective viral marketing, because I just bought some Dr. Bronner's this afternoon. Now my apartment smells like the dang hippie co op in Ann Arbor. There's no turning back now. Pretty soon I'll be drinking Molson Canadian and listening to some guy talk about Dick's Picks, and the voice will turn out to be me, because I've heard them all, oh God.

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